Practice Management

Demand for competition law will grow fastest this year, while the markets for private client and criminal law shrink slightly, research has predicted.

Defendant insurance law firm HF has handed employees free shares in the business as part of an ambitious growth plan that includes diversification, acquisition and maybe even a stock market listing.

Law firms doubled their revenue growth in the last financial year as they prepared to reward staff with salary rises, research has found.

The outsourcing of marketing activity has become a common feature of many law firms that handle claims-related work – a tacit acceptance perhaps that attracting clients requires specialist skills which some lawyers simply do not have.

The founder of a new family law firm has said she works a four-day week and will be recruiting staff to work in the same way. The “emotionally draining” nature of the work made it important.

Law firms are not responding to employees’ need for support with mental health and wellbeing, while those working flexibly are recording more hours than they did before the pandemic.

A solicitor who ran his law firm in a “shambolic fashion”, taking on more than 100 new cases when it should have been in the process of closing down, has been suspended for three months.

A solicitor has been ordered to pay a paralegal over £30,000 after an employment tribunal found he discriminated against her once she became pregnant.

There is huge scope for smaller law firms to improve their ESG performance, while all firms should have policies on which clients they will and will not work for.

Global law firm Allen & Overy has become the first law firm to adopt an AI assistant similar to ChatGPT to help speed up the work of more than 3,500 lawyers.